I Need To Stop Boring Myself Into Eating

I'm looking at a long kid-free holiday weekend, and I am determined that I am going to be strong.

One of my biggest downfalls on my kidless weekends is the fact that I let myself get bored - particularly when money is tight. I can think of a zillion things to do on a kid-free weekend, but a lot of them need funds - even if it's just the extra dollars in my gas tank to get there. Sometimes I just can't spare it, and this weekend is going to be one of those times.

Which leaves me with a dilemma - I'll be home for three days with nothing to do but clean and do yardwork. And watch movies. And surf the internet - all while mindlessly shoveling food in my mouth. That's been my M.O. on most kid-free weekends, and it really has to stop. I honestly think that's been one of the major reasons why I gained weight after Peter left (OK, that and the fact that I hate hate hate to work out....).

I need to find things to do that don't involve cooking (which I love) and don't take a lot of money. I'm going to start simple this weekend. I have a ton of pictures, empty scrapbooks and scrapbooking materials that I bought years ago and never had the time to do anything with when I was married. I just need to get it all out of the basement and get creative with it. I'm also going to walk around with a notepad in my pocket. I've decided that if I start reaching for food, I'm going to make myself reach for a pen and paper (or my laptop) and get some writing done instead.

Other good tricks that have helped: painting my nails (keeps me from reaching for anything for awhile), brushing my teeth (who wants to eat with freshly brushed teeth?) and experimenting with hairstyles. So far, these little tricks seem to be helping - I'm down seven pounds from when I started actively trying via my "baby steps" - go me!!!

What other tricks can you think of to keep me occupied and not reaching for food as entertainment?

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